Documents, such as manifests, invoices, bills of lading, or the like are frequently required to accompany products shipped by railroad car. The products may be of the type that documents are not attachable to them, such as corn, oil, frozen foods, or the like. Having the engineer or other person on the train be responsible for the proper transfer of the documents is not practical because the car may be transferred many times to different trains. In the prior art, the documents are attached to the car holding such a product and are taken from the car by the party receiving the product from the car.
Documents are attached to the railroad cars using many different techniques. To minimize the risk of loss, the documents are sometimes attached inside of the cars. The documents cannot be attached inside some types of railroad cars, such as cars that carry liquid oil products, refrigerated cars, or the like. For such cars, the documents are placed in a holder or plastic bag and attached to the outside of the cars.
Properly attaching the documents to the outside of a railroad car frequently requires human judgment and skill. An employee may not follow the proper procedures in placement and attachment of the critical documents. The likelihood of documents being destroyed, lost, or not being found increases if the railroad employee does not follow the proper procedures in attaching documents. Even if properly attached, documents coupled to the outside of the railroad car may be destroyed by weather, vandals, or hazards encountered during travel.